The second attack on the memorial this month resulted in the toppling and smashing of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside a temple in New York. The attack, which took place in the wee hours of August 16, was the most recent in a string of incidents involving Gandhi statues in the US.
According to media reports citing police, six men used a sledgehammer to smash the statue at the Sri Tulsi Mandir and painted hateful phrases all around it and on the road.
The men, aged 25 to 30, who are thought to have been involved in the attack are seen on a surveillance video that was also made public by the police.
According to police, they fled the scene in a white Mercedes Benz and a dark-colored car, possibly a Toyota Camry being driven for hire.
Jennifer Rajkumar, a member of the New York State Assembly, denounced the incident and demanded that “the perpetrators be promptly apprehended, charged, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
A Mahatma Gandhi statue was desecrated in Canada on July 14 of this year, which drew widespread condemnation. Another life-sized Gandhi statue was destroyed in Manhattan, New York City, in February of this year.
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